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Sunday, June 3, 2012

SLIME

Don't you LOVE it when your little one is over the moon about an activity you shared together?!

I do!!

This morning we made RAINBOW SLIME and Biscuit was beside herself with excitement.

There are a few ways to make slime, however I found this recipe works best ~

1 1/2 cups of CLEAR glue and 1 1/2 cups of liquid starch. The liquid starch we used was the brand STA-FLO, you can find it at your local grocery store with the laundry detergent or you can purchase on amazon.

You mix it all together, separate the slime into a few small bowls and add food coloring to each bowl.

You only need a few drops of food coloring!!!
The mixture may need to be mixed with your hands for a bit to get the desired texture, depending on the brand of glue you use. We used Elmer's Clear Glue.

93 comments:

Ha! Guess what is sitting on my shelf ready to be mixed? Clear glue and liquid starch. We've done this with white glue but not yet with clear. You stole my mind. ;) I wasn't going to mix a few colors, though. That is a great idea!

I think I messed up. Help. Mine came out clumpy with lots of liquid starch still left over. I put them both in, then mixed. I didn't use clear glue though. I used white but didn't think that mattered. Help.

Hi!! So I think the brand of glue may have something to do with it because I have received so many emails about the white glue coming out lumpy.... We used Elmer's Clear Glue. It wasn't super slimey at first, it took some mixing with our hands to really get the desired texture. I would try again with the clear glue and see what happens!!

The same thing happened with us, and I used elmers washable clear clue and StoFlo concentrated liquid starch. It never became one big glop and I had lots o liquid. i even used a whisk to try to get it to mix but no luck. :-(

just made it tonight with my 3. we used an off brand clear glue and sta-flo (which i found at walmart- tried the grocery store and k mart before that and they didn't carry liquid starch!) anyway- did the 1:1 ratio and it was lumpy and liquidy- BUT i got my hands in there and started squishing and added more glue until it was just right. the kids LOVED it! feels great, smells clean and the colors come out so vibrant! great post- just may take a little tweaking and elbow grease to get the right consistency! :D

Hi Stephanie! I have had several people say their slime came out lumpy. Not sure if it is related to the brand of glue? Our slime was not super lumpy, but it took some mixing with our hands to get the desired texture. What brand of glue did you all try?

I tried this project with white glue and it didn't really turn out like yours. And the food coloring stained our hands. granted, the kids played with it so it wasn't a total disappointment. In reading some other blogs on this receipe it sounds like you should add the coloring to the glue and then slowly add the starch. i didn't do it in that order...will give it another try once I find clear glue and hope if there are other hints that someone will post them, too.

Hi Shannon, Thanks for you tips. I have had some emails about the white glue being troublesome to work with. Try it with the Elmer's clear glue and let me know how it goes!! The food coloring was not a problem at all for us. It took really well and did not leave any residue on Biscuit's hands. However I stirred it for a good while before allow her to attack it :) Happy playing & exploring!!

Hi Christine!! The spray may not yield the same results as liquid starch. The brand we used is Sta-Flo liquid starch and it can be found at Target, or even on Amazon.com, we actually found it in the grocery store! Give it another go with the Sta-Flow and let me know how it goes. You may still have blue hands from the food coloring ;) I mixed it in really well before Biscuit got into it, that helped a great deal.

I am thinking bowls of this in slimy swamp green would be a great Hallowe'en crafty project. Does it dry out very quickly or will it keep for awhile if in an airtight container? :) Thanks for the 'recipe!

I am having trouble finding the glue...I went to Target and Michael's. No luck with Elmer's for sure...at Michael's they had some clear tacky glue, but it was $7.99 for a 4 oz. bottle...way out of my price range to use for party favors for my son's birthday party. Also, I only found Niagara spray starch at Target, is that right??

Hi Courtney, I just added a link in the post itself to amazon where you can buy the exact same products we used. It seems that Target stores carry different items depending on location. I hope this helps!!

Love this idea! Although I am so sad because I've been planning it all day and I made it and it turned out all lumpy with extra liquid? I used 1 bottle of clear elmers glue & 1 bottle of clear elmers glue with glitter in it and made it with half starch & half glue. Any ideas on why it didn't work? Maybe it was the glitter elmer's glue? No clue but I am afraid to try it again. Thanks!

We just made this exactly as posted, and ours turned out SUPER runny too. I just kind of "wrung" it out in my hands, if that makes sense, and it turned out perfect once the extra liquid dripped off. Looks exactly like the slime pictured now, and my five year old is loving it!

I make this with clear and white glue in my class. Sometimes you need to drain off the liquid then mix the left over glue slime with your hands. Mailed sure to POP the glue bubbles when you are mixing. Too much starch and it will stay runny. We've always been able to correct it. The runny problem is with the ratio of glue and starch.

I made this all the time when I worked with one year olds! They loved it! And we used normal white school glue and it came out just fine! Sometimes it just needs a bit more mixing. =) And it would last us a month sometimes two! We just store it in ziploc baggies! And FYI, if it gets in your carpet or on their clothes...straight white vinegar will dissolve it!

We love this recipe! If you use Elmer's Glue Gel instead of the clear glue, it's called Super Bubble Ooze. Give your kiddos a straw and put a small blob about the size of a large bouncy ball on the end of the straw and pinch the ooze to the end of the straw and blow. You'll get some fun, clear bubbles. My kiddos also lay out a piece like a flat pancake on the table and put the straw under it. Then use their hands to push down around the the edge of the ooze so air can't escape and blow. They got bubbles bigger than their heads and thought it was great. Lots of contests to see whose was bigger. So much fun! Enjoy!

Hey there! Just wanted to let you know we featured you in our Favorite Find Fridays post over at Whimsically Homemade. We used one of your pictures. If that's a problem let us know and we'll remove it immediately. Thanks for your great inspiration!

Im doing this now with my 6 year old. Followed the directions to the T. Can't get it to mix right. :( I have been at it for over a half hour now. He is so disappointed. :( . I bought everthing from Walmart last night, so its all brand new. Don't know what happen. Thanks for the idea anyway.

Oh no! Jackie I am so sorry to hear that, there are tons of great tips here in the comments. Also, as I mentioned mixing with your hands really helps. The mixture will be a bit lumpy, it gets better the more you play with it!

My daughter and I just did this today! We had a great time playing with these. Made different colored batches starting with 1/8 cup clear glue to starch ratio and gel food coloring on the bottom of the bowl. I mixed it by hand squishing it between my fingers. I did find it to be lumpy and watery but kept up with the mixing. I was worried because I wasn't getting the "slimy" consistency. I also had a very purple hand because of too much food coloring I had added. I washed the mixture and my hand under a little bit of cool running water; and ta-da!, the slime was perfect!! We even played with them on the windows as clings. Thanks so much for this!!

The trick seems to be to mix the food coloring with the glue. Then SLOWLY add the starch. If it feels lumpy after you've added the starch, let it rest and watch it "melt" together. Lumpy is normal after you've worked vigorously.

Liquid Starch is not safe for kids to play with as it contains borax which is a bleach agent. However, you can make this and put it in ziplock bags which still makes a great sensory activity for babies and toddlers

Found this on Pinterest and just made it with my kids. They are loving it! I thought mine didn't work at first because like other posters, it was runny and lumpy. I had cut the recipe down and used 1/2 cup of Sta-Flo starch and 1/2 cup clear Elmer's glue. It got a little thicker after working with it a while but still wasn't right. I decided to add more glue to soak up the starch and it worked great. So if anyone else is having trouble with it being runny, just add more glue until it seems right. We added food coloring once it was done and yes, it is all over me but once it was mixed in, it didn't get on the kids' hands at all--it is perfectly clean. I will say this though- take your time adding more glue. I actually dumped almost the entire bottle in and I think we could have done with less. It isn't quite as stretchy as I hoped for. Easy, cheap, and fun once you figure it out! :)

We made this this morning with white glue and sta flo- it was fantastic! We poured a standard Elmer's glue bottle in a bowl, dropped in a drop or two of food coloring and mixed it up with a tongue depressor stick. Then I slowly added starch as they stirred. I did the final mixing with my hands then squeezed it out. Perfecto!

I cut the ratio down a bit using less starch. I definitely recommend squeezing out the excess liquid after mixing and mixing the food coloring with the glue first.

It stained my hands a little bit, nothing too bad. We played on Biscuit's art table, so staining wasn't a concern. However you may want to use wax paper or foil to protect your table or countertop! Thanks!

My slime didn't turn out like yours. :( I only had one bottle of glue so I poured it into a measuring cup then added the same amount of starch. We did use the same brands you did, though. It turned out stringy and mushy. I may have added too much starch. Do you mix in the starch slowly? I did not do that either. No matter how it turned out my 8 year old grandson loved it. We will try again with the proper amounts and see how it goes. Thanks for sharing!

This was great! Thank you! However, we did it just a little different to get the right consistency! If any of you had trouble with this check out this blog post to help you get it just right. http://burnttatertots.blogspot.com/2012/08/slime-tutorial.html

Just made it with white glue & liquid starch (linit brand) easy peasy lemon squeezey - added a drop of green food coloring to the white elmer's glue (4 oz) in a bowl & stirred color in. Then poured about 3 oz of liquid starch into the now semi-empty glue bottle, shook it up, squeezed the starch out of the glue bottle into the the bowl, stirred with a spoon for a bit then used my hands briefly & voila! We had slime, not clear slime but mint green slime. My son is happily playing with it as I type!

One thought I had on the problems with the lumpiness some are referring to...could be difference in humidity in different areas...if that happens, I'd try adding a little more glue (for those that said it seemed "too liquidy") after mixing with your hands to be sure it doesn't mix in eventually. Humidity can cause a lot of problems with ingredients that mix. Love this idea with the clear glue and colors! Thanks for sharing...and if the idea about humidity is somewhere above, I apologize, but I didn't read every single comment. :-)

After not being able to find liquid starch at my local Target and Walmart (and I live in a big city!), on day 3 of begging to do this project my almost 4 year old and I found the starch at our grocery. We mixed with Elmer's clear glitter glue (we purchased the pretty pink, blue and purple colors), and could NOT get this to work! I'm currently letting it "rest" like someone else suggested. It is really stringy and lumpy and there was a lot of excess liquid. Added more glue and it wouldn't incorporate correctly. I've been trying to work it with my hands but it is getting stiffer and honestly the consistency is seriously turning my stomach! (Pregnancy hormones?). Anyway...was hoping for a "Gak" like outcome...is that what the final product should be? My daughter was so excited to try....hoping to still make it work!

Thanks for all of the good advice in the comments. We had a consistency issue as well and simply added more glue. It is perfect now and my SIL and daughter are currently burying mini dinosaurs in their slime.

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